This month, La Esperanza had the pleasure of partnering with Canadian technology company iQmetrix for an intensive, four day water project in the community of Nueva Esperanza, Granada. Among a total of 200 employees sent to Nicaragua, iQmetrix provided 93 people for a week-long project laying water pipes directly to 200 homes – an unprecedented undertaking in the community. Previously, family members (often young children) had to fill heavy buckets of water at the outlet nearest their house, which was usually a tap at the end of their street, and carry them home. Despite being hit by a huge difference in climate between Canada and Granada – for some, a climb of up to 60 degrees Celsius – the “iQers” arrived on Monday morning enthusiastic and ready to get to work digging trenches in the hot sun. The group worked in 8 teams, with each team coordinated by a La Esperanza volunteer and an ayudante. During the project, iQers were able to interact and work alongside community member
Over the years, La Esperanza Granada has endeavored to provide children living in the barrios of Granda with access to computers and tablets. Now, we are pleased to announce that a recent donation means that we have been able to purchase a collection of tablets for our Learning Centers, allowing the children greater opportunities to gain experience of such technology. For the children at our Learning Centers, tablets provide an interesting new way to progress their studies. The educational games available on the tablets turn learning into an exciting challenge where problem-solving skills and creativity are tested to the limit. It is wonderful to see the children thrive whilst using the tablets, some focusing on tasks with looks of intense concentration, others working through a game collaboratively, chatting with smiles and laughter. Furthermore, by allowing access to tablets, we are able to offer the children at our Learning Centers more than an interesting new way
Recently at La Esperanza we have launched our new learning centre initiative, with centres located in both Sabaneta and Escudo. Children attend our centres voluntarily before or after their school day and the theory behind this is that these extra couple of hours each day will not only help the children improve their progress at school, but also their confidence and abilities generally. For 3 hours every morning our volunteers teach English, and for 3 hours in the afternoon they teach a mixture of art, mathematics and Spanish. Both Marie, 22 from Germany and Blake, 20, from the USA are English teachers in the centre and both previously worked in our initiative within Nicaraguan state schools. Marie are there many differences between working in the centre and the school? In my first week, I was in Pablo Antonio Cuadra school and there were 50 to 60 children in each class. It was a very different experience. Whereas here (in the learning centre) you have more space
Comments
Post a Comment